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Reprinted  from  the 

EDUCATIONAL  REVIEW 
New  York,  January,  1900 

Copyright,  1900,  by  Educational  Review  Publishing  Co. 


ENGLISH  HISTORY  IN  AMERICAN 
SCHOOL  TEXT-BOOKS 


BY 


CHARLES  WELSH 

Author  of  "A  Bookseller  of  the  Last  Century,' 
" Publishing  a  Book,"  etc. 


'/^w       '/v<.      U.myfi'X^irv^       (^rr^.U^C^,^--i^-C^^Ao 


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LIBRAR)^ 


HI 

ENGLISH    HISTORY    IN    AMERICAN    SCHOOL 
TEXT-BOOKS 

One  of  my  earliest  recollections  is  that  of  being  taken  to  see 
the  fireworks  which  were  set  off  at  the  pierhead  in  Ramsgate 
harbor  to  celebrate  the  declaration  of  peace  after  the  Crimean 
War.  From  that  time  until  I  went,  when  quite  a  young  man, 
into  the  Gallery  of  Battles  in  Versailles — a  gallery  in  which  the 
glories  of  the  French  armies  are  celebrated  in  acres  of  canvas 
by  the  famous  French  artist  Detaille — I  never  fully  realized 
that  Englishmen  had  ever  been  defeated  by  land  or  sea.  I  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  belief  that  one  Englishman  could  beat 
three  Johnny  Crapauds.  But  here  all  my  illusions  on  that 
score  were  shattered  at  one  rude  blow,  for  about  one  picture 
in  every  three  represented  a  defeat  of  the  English  in  either 
a  naval  or  a  military  engagement.  Then  I  made  up  my  mind 
with  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  that  I  would  "  study  anything  but 
history,  for  history  must  be  false." 

Some  such  awakening  has  no  doubt  come  to  almost  every 
thinking  man  or  woman  who  has  been  brought  up  on  the  old 
methods  of  teaching  the  history  of  their  country,  whether  they 
be  English  or  American,  French  or  German,  Turk  or  Russian 
— this  no  doubt  has  its  effect  in  inspiring  a  patriotic  feeling; 
in  keeping  alive  a  belief  in  the  invincibleness  of  one's  own 
nation ;  a  faith  in  its  good  star,  which  has  led  men  on  to  further 
victories  and  inspired  them  to  yet  more  valorous  deeds  than 
their  forefathers  have  performed. 

But  in  these  later  days  we  are  recognizing  more  fully  than 
ever  the  dignity  of  history,  we  are  realizing  that  patriotism  is 
not  the  sole  and  ultimate  object  of  its  study,  but  the  search  for 
truth,  and  abiding  by  the  truth  when  found,  for  "  the  truth 
shall  make  ye  free  "  is  an  axiom  that  applies  here  as  always. 
A  quaint  old  writer  has  said: 

23 


110563 


24  Educational  Review  [January 

This  is  a  great  fault  in  a  chronologer, 
To  turn  parasite  :  an  absolute  history 
Should  be  in  fear  of  none,  neither  should  he 
Write  any  thing  more  than  truth  for  friendship, 
Or  else  for  hate ;  but  keep  himself  equal 
And  constant  in  all  his  discourses. 

Now  young  America  has  until  recent  years  been  brought  up 
in  just  as  one-sided  a  way  of  looking  upon  England  as  young 
England  was  formerly  brought  up  to  look  upon  France,  and 
if  I  touch  for  a  little  while  upon  some  of  those  characteristics 
in  the  school  history  text-books  of  the  past,  which  have  been 
to  some  extent  responsible  for  this,  it  is  not  with  a  view  of  rak- 
ing up  old  grievances,  of  re-opening  old  sores,  or  reviving  dis- 
cussions that  are  happily  closed,  but  in  order  to  emphasize  the 
more  strongly  the  brighter  day  that  is  dawning — or,  rather, 
that  has  dawned  already  and  in  the  light  of  which  we  are  now 
living.  For  my  main  object  is  not  so  much  to  show  how 
English  history  has  been  handled  in  the  past  and  how  the 
English  people  have  been  misrepresented  in  American  school 
text-books,  as  to  call  attention  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  sub- 
ject is  being  handled  by  those  who  are  providing  the  school 
histories  of  the  present  and  the  near  future. 

Those  old  text-books  which  told  the  children  how  "  proud 
Britain  was  humiliated,"  how  "  the  boasted  power  of  Eng- 
land was  broken,"  her  "  haughty  title  of  mistress  of  the  seas 
forever  taken  from  her,"  and  "  the  tyrant  of  the  ocean  de- 
stroyed"; talked  of  "the  bloodthirsty  British  redcoats,"  the 
"  inhuman  English  soldiery,"  "  the  outrages  perpetrated  by  In- 
dians with  the  sanction  of  British  officers,"  of  the  treatment  of 
the  colonies  by  the  English  as  "  a  distinct  and  subordinate  class 
of  subjects  "  are  well  described  in  a  report  presented  by  the 
Committee  of  Text-Books  on  American  History  to  the  New 
England  History  Teachers  in  October,  1898.^     It  says: 

The  older  style  of  text-book  was  a  curious  product.  Its  author  was 
frequently  a  literary  hack,  ready  to  compile  a  dictionary,  annotate  a  classical 
text,  or  write  an  algebra,  as  occasion  offered.  Of  special  training  in  history  ( 
he  had  none  ;  but  he  had  read  a  goo'd  deal,  had  a  number  of  apt  stories  at  ( 
his  command,  and  made  up  for  his  limited  knowledge  by  a  vivid  and  pliable 
imagination.  To  such  a  writer,  the  preparation  of  a  school  book  in 
American  history  was  an  easy  task.  Details  aside,  the  general  formula 
'  Educational  Review,  16:  483. 


I  poo]  Eiiglish  history  in  school  text-books 


-'5 


was  quite  unvarying.  Say  nothing  about  the  physical  features  of  the 
continent,  but  extol  the  virtues  of  the  noble  Indian;  dwell  on  the  brilliant 
intellect,  the  undaunted  courage,  and  the  magnificent  faith  of  Columbus,  the 
hardships  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  grim  sternness  of  the  Puritans,  the  simplicity 
of  the  Quakers,  and  the  quaintness  of  the  Dutch ;  show  how  the  Revolution 
was  due  solely  to  the  brutal  tyranny  of  the  British,  and  how  Washington 
and  Franklin  had,  in  supreme  degree,  all  the  virtues  ever  exhibited  by  men 
in  their  respective  spheres,  and  not  a  single  fault ;  characterize  the  Constitu- 
tion as  "  the  greatest  product  of  the  human  mind,"  but  avoid  much  refer- 
ence to  it  after  its  adoption;  cut  up  the  period  after  1789  into  four-year 
morsels,  and  give  to  the  mastication  of  each  about  the  same  amount  of 
space ;  dwell  on  the  enormities  of  England  after  the  peace  of  1783,  and  the 
glorious  victories  of  the  war  of  1812,  not  omitting  mention  of  Jackson's 
cotton  bales  and  Perry's  green-timber  fleet ;  show  what  a  lovely  thing  the 
era  of  good  feeling  was,  and  how  the  South  went  all  wrong  about  nullifica- 
tion, slavery,  and  the  Civil  War  ;  add  in  an  appendix  the  Constitution,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  a  list  of  Presidents,  and  then  enliven  the 
whole  by  a  profusion  of  fancy  pictures,  including  "Washington  Crossing 
the  Delaware,"  "  A  Winter  at  Valley  Forge,"  "  An  Emigrant  Train,"  and 
"  Welcome,  Englishmen  !  " — and  you  had  a  book  admirably  adapted  to  the 
training  of  citizens  and  patriots. 

On  such  stuff  were  many  of  us  fed  in  our  youth. 

Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead,  editor  of  the  New  England  Magazine, 
writes : 

Much  of  the  ill-will  toward  England  which  undeniably  exists  in  great  sec- 
tions of  the  American  people  and  which  the  mischief-making  politician  can 
confidently   appeal    to  springs   from  a  false   view  of  what  the  American 
Revolution  was  and  what  the  history  of  England  was  in  connection  with  it. 
The  feelings  of  jealousy  and  anger   which  were   born  in  the   throes  of  the 
g^  struggle  for  independence  are  indiscriminately  perpetuated.     Our  children 
T^  grow  up  with  the  feeling  that  "  redcoat  "  is  the  very  badge  and  synonym 
of  enmity  to  America.     They  are  trained  and  fortified  in  it  often  by  false 
and    superficial  text-books.     The  influence  of  false  history  and  of  crude 
i4  one-sided  history  is  enormous.     It  is  a  natural  and  logical  step  by  which 
2  children  pass  many  of  our  schoolrooms  to  the  back  yard,  there  to  set  up 
i^  images   of   "  Britishers "    and    fire   at  the  whites   of  their  eyes ;  and  it  is 
natural   that    feelings   so   born    should    die  hard    and    at  times  become  a 
dangerous  factor  in  the  national  life.     So  important  is  the  whole  influence 
of  popular  historical  views  that  we  do  not  think  it  too  much  to  say  that  a 
vast  amount  of  the  persistent  ill-will  toward  England  of  whicli  from  time  to 
time   we   become   conscious   among   our   people,   as  compared    with    the 
almost  universal  kindliness  of  English  feeling  toward  us,  is  to  be  explained 
by  the  very  different  spirit  in  wiiich  the  history  of  the  American  Revolution 
is  taught  to  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  schools  of  the  one  country  and  of  the 
other. 

Writing-  on  America  revisited,  in  1896,  Mr.  Samuel  Smith, 

M.  P.,  said: 


26  Educational  Review  [January 

The  history  books  taught  in  the  pubUc  schools  too  often  give  the  children 
of  America  the  impression  that  the  main  events  in  human  history  are  the 
American  War  of  Independence,  concluded  in  1783,  and  the  war  with 
Great  Britain  of  1812-14.  It  need  not  be  added  that  Great  Britain  appears 
in  those  histories  always  in  the  wrong,  and  the  Americans  always  right. 
There  are  no  pains  taken  to  show  that  the  best  men  in  England  protested 
ao'ainst  the  policy  of  George  III.  and  Lord  North,  and  that  the  British 
nation  to-day  esteems  George  Washington  as  much  as  do  the  people  of 
America.  It  is  not  explained  that  the  England  of  last  century  was 
governed  by  the  aristocracy,  and  that  the  England  of  to-day  repudiates  the 
fatal  policy  of  the  eighteenth  century  as  much  as  do  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  These  truths  gradually  become  clear  to  all  educated 
Americans,  especially  to  those  who  visit  Europe.  But  the  children  of 
the  ignorant  foreign  population  get  no  correcting  education  afterward. 
The  newspapers  they  read  perpetuate  these  prejudices,  and  there  is  con- 
sequently created  a  permanent  mass  of  ill-feeling  against  Great  Britain. 

The  unfortunate  and  injudicious  language  that  has  been 
used  in  describing  the  events  of  the  Revolution  and  the  War  of 
1812,  in  the  text-books  which  have  just  been  described,  can 
hardly  be  said  to  be  materially  untrue.  But  the  child,  the 
untrained  reader,  is  more  affected  by  a  plain  assertion  than  by 
any  qualified  phraseology.  If  you  call  a  man  "  tyrant," 
"  thief,"  or  "  murderer,"  no  matter  what  you  afterward  say  to 
minimize  the  ofifense,  no  matter  what  extenuating  circum- 
stances you  bring  forward,  no  matter  what  explanation  may 
be  offered — the  opprobrium  of  the  term  will  be  sure  to  stick. 
And,  as  I  have  said,  with  the  young  no  amount  of  explanatory 
justice  can  overcome  the  effect  of  strong  denunciatory  lan- 
guage. Such  words  as  "  tyrant,"  "  oppressor,"  "  slave,"  and 
"  arrogant  "  expressing  the  sense  of  the  strong  provocation  of 
a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  revive,  rekindle,  and  keep 
alight  the  rancor  and  the  passion  of  that  time.  They  have 
kept  alive  in  children's  minds  the  idea  that  the  English  were 
monsters  and  the  Americans  the  sublimest  of  heroes. 

Before  turning  to  another  point  I  may  cite  a  few  passages 

to  illustrate  what  I  have  said.     They  are  quoted  from  various 

books,  which,  altho  still  in  use,  have  either  been  modified  or 

are  ceasing  to  have  any  large  and  important  sale : 

The  troops   burned  the  Capitol  and  other  public  buildings.     After  this 
act  of  vandalism  they  withdrew  to  their  shipping. 


After  committing  shocking  brutalities  at  Hampton,  the  fleet  sailed  for  the 
West  Indies. 


3900]  E^iglish  history  in  school  text-books  27 

England  treated  the  settlers  as  an  inferior  class  of  people.  Her  intention 
was  to  make  and  keep  the  colonies  dependent.  The  laws  were  framed  to 
favor  the  English  manufacturer  and  merchant  at  the  expense  of  the 
-colonists.  .  .  .  American  manufactures  were  prohibited.  Iron-works 
were  denounced  as  "  common  nuisances";  even  William  Pitt,  the  friend  of 
America,  declared  she  had  no  right  to  manufacture  even  a  nail  for  a  horse- 
shoe except  by  permission  from  Parliament. 


The  British  naval  officers  behaved  in  a  very  high-handed  way.     In  one 
instance  their  insolence  was  deservedly  punished. 


The  employment  of  foreign   hirelings  to    subdue  British-born   subjects 
became  a  leading  cause  of  American  hatred  for  the  mother  country. 


There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  Boston  boys  were  impudent  sometimes. 
It  is  said  that  they  called  the  red-coated  soldiers  "  lobsters  "  and  "  bloody- 
backs  ";  but  I  am  sure  they  would  not  have  done  so  if  they  had  been 
treated  right. 

One  of  the  most  successful  teachers  of  history  in  this  coun- 
try says  that  American  histories  have  unintentionally  stirred 
"Up  strife  between  England  and  the  United  States  by  omission 
rather  than  commission.  Our  historians  have  failed  to  state 
fairly  issues  between  the  countries.  The  causes  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  and  the  War  of  18 12  have  never  been  properly 
stated.  The  story  of  these  wars  has  always  been  so 
stated  as  to  minimize  English  success.  There  has  been  a 
failure  to  show  the  obligation  that  we  are  under  to  Eng- 
land from  the  intellectual  side — literature,  art,  and  invention. 
Most  school  histories  have  been  written  by  ignorant  school- 
masters, who  put  in  print  popular  tradition  rather  than  exam- 
ine authorities  for  themselves. 

A  few  words  about  these  sins  of  omission,  and  then  I  shall 
turn  to  another  phase  of  the  subject. 

In  nearly  all  the  school-history  text-books  the  employment 
of  Indians  by  the  British  is  described,  sometimes  in  very  strong 
terms;  but  there  is  little  or  no  mention  of  the  employment  of 
Indians  by  the  Americans,  or  of  outrages  committed  by  Amer- 
ican troops.  In  dealing  with  the  W^ar  of  18 12  much  is  made 
of  the  massacre  of  the  River  Raisin,  little  of  the  American 
^'  atrocities  "  which  provoked  this.  There  is  a  general  failure 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Government  could  even 


28  Ediicatiojial  Review  [January 

claim,  in  the  expenses  of  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  some 
warrant  for  their  taxation  of  the  protected  colonists. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  omissions  of  all  have  been  the  failure' 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  oppression  of  the  colonies  which 
led  to  the  Revolution  was  the  work  of  the  king  and  one  politi- 
cal party,  and  not  that  of  the  great  people  of  England,  and  the 
failure  to  point  out  that  the  colonists  themselves  were  by  no 
means  united  in  their  struggle  against  the  king  and  the  Tories. 

I  want,  however,  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  in  the  very  large 
number  of  school  histories  that  I  have  examined  I  have  not. 
found  anything  that  looks  like  intentional  misrepresentation 
or  deliberate  and  willful  misstatement  made  with  a  view  to 
stir  up  and  keep  alive  hatred  of  the  British.  The  language 
that  was  found  in  the  old  sources  from  which  the  histories 
were  first  written,  full  of  the  passion  and  bitterness  of  the 
moment,  naturally  found  its  way  into  these  earlier  books,  but  (I 
quote  again  the  Report  of  the  New  England  History  Associa- 
tion) "  under  the  influence  of  deeper  study  and  a  keener  sense 
of  justice,  the  element  of  bitterness  which  so  often  entered 
into  the  discussion  of  the  Revolution  has  largely  disappeared, 
and  while  its  treatment  in  the  text-books  still  leaves  much  to 
be  desired,  it  is  now  seldom  dogmatic  and  unsympathetic." 

Just  to  show  how  that  great  and  most  important  event  in 
American  history  is  receding  into  a  new  perspective,  I  mny 
point  out  how  the  space  devoted  to  it  in  the  history  books  has 
been  gradually  reduced:  Grimshaw,  1822,  devotes  one-third 
of  his  space  to  the  Revolution;  Russell,  1837,  one-third;  Good- 
rich, edition  used,  published  about  1881,  one-fifth;  Guernsey, 
1849,  one-third;  Lossing,  i860,  one-third;  Holmes,  1870,  one- 
fifth;  Swinton,  1871,  one-sixth;  Barnes,  1871,  1885,  etc., 
one-seventh;  Stephens,  1875,  one-seventh;  Johnson,  1885,  one- 
ninth;  Montgomery,  1890,  one-eighth;  Shinn,  1895,  one- 
seventh;  Lee,  1895,  one-seventh;  Cooper,  Estill,  and  Lemmon, 
1895,  one-eighth;  Thomas,  1893,  one-eighth.  These  figures 
are  most  suggestive.  The  Civil  War  not  only  placed  the  Rev- 
olution in  an  entirely  new  and  different  focus,  but  the  desire 
to  see  both  sides  of  the  question,  and  to  write  the  history  of 
the  later  struggle  without  wounding  susceptibilities  or  keeping 


1900]  English  history  in  school  text-books  29, 

alive  bad  feelings  has  doubtless  infused  a  greater  spirit  of  fair- 
ness when  treating  of  the  farther  off  event.  The  desire  for 
fairness  to  the  South  begat  the  need  of  fairness  to  all,  and,  of 
course,  when  the  new  history  books  are  written  which  shall 
include  the  story  of  the  Spanish  war  and  the  subjugation  of 
the  Philippines,  both  the  Civil  War  and  the  wars  against  Eng- 
land will  have  to  be  viewed  in  a  dift'erent  perspective  again. 

Many  persons  remember  a  visit  paid  to  this  country  some 
three  or  four  years  ago  by  the  late  Samuel  Plimsoll,  M.  P., 
whose  name  will  forever  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by 
British  sailors — and  whose  famous  load  line  will,  it  is  hoped, 
never  disappear  from  British  vessels.  "  The  sailors'  friend," 
as  the  fighter  of  the  Coffin  Ship  interest  was  called,  visited  this 
country  in  1896,  and  he  described  his  mission  as  follows : 

I  have  come  to  this  country  to  see  if  I  cannot  find  the  cause  of  the  un- 
just disHke  the  Americans  have  for  the  mother  country.  That  feeling  is  so 
uncalled  for  that  there  must  be  some  cause  for  it — fancied  cause,  I  think. 
We  in  England  have  no  such  feeling  toward  America.  We  have  only 
sympathy  and  admiration  for  her.  It  seems  strange  to  me  that  you  should 
allow  the  ill  feeling  caused  by  a  war  of  120  years  ago  still  to  exist.  You 
must  remember  that  nine-tenths  of  the  English  people  were  opposed  to  the 
war  at  the  time,  and  that  the  remaining  one-tenth,  the  governing  class, 
was  divided  within  itself  on  the  subject.  Why  let  the  acts  of  a  daft  old 
king,  who  was  in  retirement  for  insanity  two  or  three  times,  cause  an  ever- 
lasting animosity  toward  the  England  of  to-day,  which  has  no  more  to  do 
with  that  time  than  the  United  States  of  to-day  has  ?  I  believe  the  prej- 
udice starts  with  the  children  and  is  taught  to  them  from  school  histories 
that  misstate  facts;  and  in  these  histories  I  think  the  remedy  lies.  I  have 
gathered  together  all  the  histories  that  are  used  in  the  board  schools  of 
England.  There  are  thirty-four  of  them.  I  examined  them  carefully,  and  I 
did  not  find  the  slightest  unkind  allusion  to  the  United  States  in  one.  And 
so  I  have  come  to  this  country  to  examine  the  school  histories  used  here. 
I  have  been  told,  and  believe,  that  most  of  them  are^unfair ;  that  they  foster 
a  wrong  feeling  toward  the  mother  country.  I  hope  to  live  long  enough  to 
bring  this  to  the  attention  of  thinking  men,  so  that  a  reform  can  be  begun. 
If  we  begin  with  the  children,  I  think  the  rest  will  work  out  itself. 

I  have  given  some  idea  of  what  Mr.  Plimsoll  might  have 
found  in  the  American  schoolbooks,  and  were  it  not  for  the 
fear  of  wearying  the  reader  I  would  like  to  contrast  the  lan- 
guage in  these  old  American  books  with  that  in  the  English 
histories.  But  most  persons  know  the  tone  always  adopted  in 
English  school  histories  when  dealing  with  the  American  Rev- 


30  Educational  Review  [January 

olution,  and  if  anyone  wishes  to  refresh  his  memory  he  can  get 
from  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  a  pamphlet  con- 
taining the  collection  of  extracts  which  Mr.  Plimsoll  brought 
together.  Of  this  collection  Mr.  Edwin  D.  Mead,  than  whom 
no  one  in  this  country  has  done  more  to  promote  good  feeling 
between  England  and  America,  says : 

Such  is  the  teaching  given  to  the  boys  and  girls  of  England  with  refer- 
ence to  the  American  Revolution.  Everywhere  the  King  and  government 
of  England  are  made  to  shoulder  the  blame,  and  the  American  colonists 
are  held  up  to  admiration  as  the  champions  of  law  and  liberty  and  the 
rights  of  mankind.  "  Had  we  then  had  a  House  of  Commons  elected  by 
the  people,  as  we  have  now," — this  word  of  one  would  be  adopted  by  all, — 
"  most  likely  the  war  with  America  would  never  have  taken  place."  "  If 
the  counsel  of  some  of  the  wisest  statesmen  in  England  had  been  followed, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  a  compromise  would  have  been  effected  and  peace 
maintained.  But  the  King  would  not  hear  of  making  any  concession.  He 
regarded  the  colonists  as  rebels  who  must  be  forced  into  obedience." 
"  England  was  fighting  for  a  bad  cause,  and  freedom  and  good  government 
came  from  her  defeat."  To  true  fraternity  and  friendship  there  is  nothing 
more  important  than  a  true  treatment  and  understanding  of  the  history  of 
the  nations  in  their  relations  to  each  other.  It  is  fundamentally  important 
that  this  history  should  be  taught  aright  to  the  boys  and  girls,  for  they  are 
to  be  the  men  and  women,  the  sovereigns,  to-morrow.  May  we  not  learn 
from  these  English  schoolbooks  lessons  in  fairness,  in  frankness,  in  tem- 
perance and  breadth,  in  good  humor,  and  in  noble  spirit.'' 

Some  people  have  said  it  is  easier  for  the  English  boys  to 
read  forgivingly  of  the  resentment  and  rebellion  of  the  colo- 
nists provoked  by  English  injustice  than  it  is  for  American 
boys  to  read  without  symptoms  of  sympathetic  resentment  of 
the  injustice  that  provoked  them.  But  that  shows  understand- 
ing neither  of  the  circumstances  of  the  case  nor  the  attitude  of 
mind  of  the  British  people.  Every  British  boy  sympathizes 
with  America  in  that  struggle,  for  every  British  boy  knows  that 
America  was  fighting  for  exactly  what  his  own  people  were 
fighting  then,  and  had  been  fighting  for  centuries.  When 
the  English  boy  reads  Patrick  Henry's  splendid  warn- 
ing to  George  III.  he  experiences  just  as  sympathetic  a  thrill 
as  any  American  boy,  and  his  heart  goes  out  as  warmly  to  the 
boys  who  bearded  General  Gage  as  does  that  of  any  boy  of 
Boston;  and  I  verily  believe  that,  while  most  of  us  rejoice  that 
England  could  conquer  France  and  Spain  and  Holland,  we 


1900]  English  history  in  school  text-books  3  i 

have,  if  we  read  history  aright,  a  secret  satisfaction  in  know- 
ing that  she  could  not  subdue  her  own  rebelhous  sons  who  had 
risen  up  against  kingly  oppression  and  whose  courage  and  love 
of  freedom  were  as  strong  as  their  own. 

Not  all  American  history  books  have  failed  to  present  the 
case  of  the  Revolution  fairly.  I  find  in  one  book,  copyrighted 
in  1874  and  written  by  Samuel  Eliot,  that 

In  the  story  of  the  provocation  dividing  the  mother  country  and  the 
colonies  we  have  not  England,  not  Great  Britain  pitted  against  America, 
but  the  ruling  classes  in  the  mother  country  opposed  to  the  better  class  in 
our  colonies.  The  distinction  is  important ;  nothing  else  could  explain  the 
amount  of  blundering  on  one  side  or  the  amount  of  wisdom,  comparatively 
speaking,  on  the  other.  Nor  could  anything  else  so  clearly  indicate  the 
difference  between  the'principles  at  stake  :  the  principles  of  an  old  aristocracy 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  those  of  a  young  commonwealth  all 
fervent  with  vigor  and  with  hope. 

Farther  on  in  the  book  the  writer  tells  the  American  boy 
that,  when  peace  was  declared,  from  all  parts  of  Great  Britain 
itself  there  came  congratulations  and  applause. 

But  such  a  treatment  of  the  matter  was  the  exception  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Probably  the  publication,  in  1891,  of  Mrs. 
Sheldon  Barnes's  Studies  in  American  history  has  had  as  much 
effect  as  any  single  book  in  teaching  the  teachers  that  the  Eng- 
lish people  never  fought  against  America;  that  the  Revolution 
was  a  revolt  against  monarchs  and  tyrants,  was  a  fight  for 
a  principle,  such  as  Englishmen  at  home  were  struggling  for 
at  almost  the  same  time — a  principle  of  liberty  and  freedom. 
In  this  admirable  pioneer  book,  the  student  is  shown  both  sides 
of  many  historical  episodes  by  extracts  from  contemporary 
documents,  and  it  has  been  a  revelation  to  many  to  learn  from 
the  extract  from  the  London  Gazette,  which  Mrs.  Barnes  gives 
in  this  book,  that  when  the  news  that  the  royal  assent  had  been 
given  to  the  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  made  public,  "  there 
were  the  greatest  rejoicings  possible  in  the  city  of  London  by 
all  ranks  of  the  people.  The  ships  in  the  river  displayed  all 
their  colors  and  there  were  bonfires  and  illuminations  in  many 
parts." 

As  another  instance  of  English  sympathy  with  American 
resistance  to  tyranny,  I  may  mention  the  trial   for  libel  of 


32  Educational  Review  [January- 

John  P.  Zenger,  a  New  York  printer.  It  was  perhaps  the 
first  attempt  at  the  restricting  of  the  freedom  of  the  press 
made  in  this  country.  Zenger  w'as  acquitted,  and  the  speech 
for  the  defense  by  lawyer  Andrew  Hamilton  of  Philadelphia, 
with  all  the  details  of  the  trial,  was  several  times  reprinted 
in  England,  where  the  result  was  hailed  w4th  joy,  for  the 
people  were  at  that  time  rebelling  against  the  muzzling  of  the 
press  in  the  mother  country. 

It  was  Mrs.  Sheldon  Barnes's  book,  too,  which  brought  to 
the  notice  of  our  history  teachers  the  fact,  hitherto  almost 
always  ignored  in  the  text-books,  that  there  was  a  very  large 
and  important  section  of  the  American  people  who  sang: 

Tho  fated  to  Povert}',  Banishment,  Death, 
Our  hearts  are  unaltered  and  with  our  last  breath 
Loyal  to  George  we'll  most  fervently  pray, 
Glory  and  Joy  crown  the  King. 

These  Tories,  representing  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the 
wealth  and  intelligence  of  the  country,  w^ere  strongly  opposed 
to  the  Revolutionists,  and  aided  the  British  in  every  way 
possible.  For  this  they  suffered  all  manner  of  persecution  and 
privation,  and  they  displayed  no  small  heroism  in  the  cause. 
So  that  even  the  Revolution  was  not  the  unanimous,  spontane- 
ous movement  that  the  usual  school  text-book  would  have 
the  children  believe.  The  part  the  Tories  took  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution  is  deserving  of  attention  if  we  are  to  present 
the  historic  truth,  and  the  desire  to  present  both  sides, — this 
spirit  of  fairness,  this  abandoning  of  rancorous  epithet  is  the 
keynote  of  the  newest  books, — and  a  broader  spirit  yet  must 
permeate  those  of  the  immediate  future. 

As  an  instance  of  the  new  spirit  in  which  the  study  of  history 
is  being  approached  by  modern  thinkers,  I  should  like  to  call 
attention  to  an  article  by  Professor  Edwin  Erie  Sparks 
of  Chicago  University,  on  "  The  sentimental  in  American  his- 
tory," which  is  an  earnest  plea  for  the  truth  in  dealing  with 
characters  who  have  figured  in  the  making  of  the  nation.  He 
asks  that  the  honest  and  trustworthy  portrait  be  given  "  warts 
and  all,"  even  tho  the  picture  be  not  beautiful  and  shows  that 
some  instances  of  what  has  been  called  disinterested  patriotism. 


1900]  English  history  in  school  text-books  33 

even  in  such  men  as  George  Washington,  Benjamin  FrankHn, 
James  Otis,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Hancock  were  really 
the  promptings  of  personal  grievances  which  they  had  against 
the  British. 

In  the  report  to  the  American  Historical  Association  of 
the  Conmiittee  of  Seven  on  "  The  study  of  history  in  schools," 
which  was  made  last  year,  American  teachers  are  told  that : 

English  history  until  1776  is  our  history.  Edward  I.,  Pym, 
and  Hampden  and  William  Pitt  belong  to  our  past  and  helped 
to  make  us  what  we  are.  A  realization  of  present  duties,  a 
comprehension  of  present  responsibilities,  an  appreciation  of 
present  opportunities  cannot  better  be  inculcated  than  by  a 
study  of  the  centuries  in  which  Englishmen  were  struggling 
for  representation,  free  speech,  and  due  process  of  law. 

Teachers  are  recommended  to  combine  English  and  Ameri- 
can history  in  such  a  manner  that  the  more  important  prin- 
ciples wrought  out  in  English  history,  and  the  main  facts  of 
English  expansion,  will  be  taught  in  connection  with  American 
colonial  and  later  political  history. 

And  they  are  told  that  without  a  knowledge  of  how  the 
English  people  developed  and  English  principles  matured  one 
can  have  slight  appreciation  of  what  America  means.  Even 
the  Revolution,  for  example,  if  studied  as  an  isolated  phe- 
nomenon, is  bereft  of  half  its  meaning,  to  say  the  least,  because 
the  movement  that  ended  in  the  separation  of  the  colonies  from 
the  mother  country,  and  in  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution, began  long  before  the  colonies  were  founded,  and  be- 
cause the  Declaration  of  Independence  .was  the  formal  an- 
nouncement of  democratic  ideas  that  had  their  tap-root  in- 
English  soil. 

Teaching  such  as  this  may  safely  be  trusted  to  minimize  the 
effect  on  the  mind  of  the  young  reader  of  the  strong  language' 
contained  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which,  I  sup- 
pose, will  for  all  time  be  printed  as  an  appendix  to  the  Amer- 
ican school  history.  When  our  school  children  read  or  hear 
read, 

"He    [King  George   III.]   is  at   this  time  transporting  large  armies  of 
foreign  mercenaries  to  complete  the  work  of  death,  desolation,  and  tyranny 


34  Educational  Review  [January 

already  begun  with  circumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy  scarcely  paralleled 
in  the  most  barbarous  ages,  and  totally  unworthy  the  head  of  a  civilized 
nation," 

they  will  know  that  this  was  not  the  work  of  the  English 
people;  but  they  will  know  that  it  was  part  of  a  policy  from 
which  the  English  themselves  were  suffering  and  struggling 
to  deliver  themselves,  and  when,  a  little  further  on,  they  hear 
or  read  that 

"  He  has  excited  domestic  insurrection  amongst  us,  and  has  endeavored 
to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers  the  merciless  Indian  savages 
whose  known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  undistinguished  destruction  of  all  ages, 
sexes,  and  conditions," 

they  will  know  that  England  was  not  alone  in  employing  the 
Indian  against  its  enemies. 

But  the  children  of  our  schools  in  the  future  will  know  all 
this  and  more;  they  will  be  taught  that  the  secrets  of  the  won- 
derful progress  of  the  English  and  of  the  American  peoples  are 
the  same — that  both  have  shown  the  same  unconquerable 
desire  for  the  liberty  of  the  individual  and  for  freedom  of  con- 
science, the  same  sturdy  independence  of  thought  and  action, 
and  the  same  impatience  of  foreign  control.  The  spirit  which 
secured  for  Englishmen  all  their  rights  and  their  freedom, 
the  desire  for  knowledge  which  has  made  education  the  birth- 
right of  the  English-speaking  people, — the  fear  of  God,  the 
desire  to  do  right,  the  love  of  home,  of  family,  and  of  country, 
the  resistless  energy  of  character,  the  scorn  of  comfort,  the 
tenacious  courage  which  led  Englishmen  to  seek  homes  and 
build  up  empire  beyond  the  seas, — all  these  qualities  have  been 
the  same  under  different  conditions  in  the  history  of  both 
countries.  The  problems  have  sometimes  been  different,  but 
they  have  always  been  met  and  conquered  in  the  same  spirit. 
Our  American  brethren  have  settled  unexplored  lands  and  were 
exposed  to  battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death,  and  they  had  to 
struggle  against  the  tyranny  and  oppression  of  one  monarch; 
but  they  triumphed  over  every  obstacle  and  established  a 
system  of  free  government  on  firm  and  lasting  foundations, 
which  is  to-day  the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world.  We 
Englishmen  have  had  a  struggle  for  freedom  which  lasted  a 


I  poo  J  English  history  in  school  text-books  35 

thousand  years;  we  have  had  to  fight  not  only  the  forces  of 
nature  and  the  perils  of  land  and  sea,  but  against  kings  and 
conquerors,  and  against  an  aristocracy  which  was  ever  striving 
to  keep  us  in  ignorance  and  subjection." 

The  American  children  of  the  future  will  learn,  too,  that 
the  institutions  of  the  English-speaking  people  are  very  much 
the  same  in  principle  everywhere.  Each  nation  and  each 
colony  has  its  own  problems  to  work  out,  its  own  difficulties 
to  overcome;  but  all  are  seeking  to  make  our  men  and  our 
women,  our  boys  and  our  girls  wiser  and  better  and  better 
fitted  to  govern  themselves  than  any  other  race  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

And,  seeing  we  are  one  in  race,  one  in  history,  one  in 
tongue,  one  in  the  priceless  inheritance  of  the  noblest  literature 
of  the  world,  one  in  our  aims,  our  hopes,  and  our  aspirations, 

For  ever  let  us  meet  with  kind  embrace 
Nor  stain  the  sacred  friendship  of  our  race. 

Charles  Welsh 

WiNTHROP  Highlands, 
Mass. 


110563 


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